Description

Nose of the plane with name "Trail of the Caribou" on it. Two men standing in front of plane - Captain Reid from Canada and his aid, Ayling, an Englishman. In trying to achieve their goal - to fly from Canada to Iraq, they had to stop in London.

Captain Reed starts speaking - natural sound. He talks about his disappointment for not achieving the goal - flying to Baghdad without breaks but he is happy to have flown to England, that is a great achievement too. He talks about flight conditions etc.

Comments (2)

john.dh88says

25th March 2013

After crossing the Atlantic, Reid and Ayling had to land at Heston Aerodrome. They then took the aircraft to Hatfield where it was examined the next day: "...both engines and cowlings were as clean as if the ‘Dragon’ had just left the erecting shop.” They were also interviewed by the press at Hatfield, presumably on the same day, including the camera crew who filmed the interview, and also a reporter from Flight magazine: http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1934/1934 - 0836.html At the start of the video, in the background, you can see the squash courts building of the London Aeroplane Club, who had moved to Hatfield the year before. On the roof is the brand new, light house-style beacon on its roof for aiding navigation after dark. You can see it again, including the press crews, in this picture: http://www.maritiemdigitaal.nl/index.cfm?event=search.getdetail&id=120112692 Hatfield 'airport' was the de Havilland company's aerodrome, which they had opened in 1930. At the time&#8230;

At the time of the Reid & Ayling interview, the company was finalising the relocation of its HQ and most of its factory production from Stag Lane Aerodrome in Edgware.

The building in view, and the flying school/club house building just out of shot to the right, stood until 1991, when they were demolished to make way for the Bishops Square office development, now part of Hatfield Business Park.